kernel 6.3 switches to platform_profile from intel_pstate on thinkpad l13 gen 2 (intel)

Ah - yes, I reverted a previous fix that broke things on the T490 so now PSC mode is available on Intel. I had a long discussion with the FW team on a recent trip to Japan and it should work...but it looks like L13 G2 is going to give us extra headaches

Two tests for you to run please, as I don't have a L13.

Test 1: With the same set of patches that I reverted the fix, I also introduced a debug override in case things like this happened. You should be able to do:

rmmod thinkpad_acpi

modprobe thinkpad_acpi profile_force=1

That should force the driver back to MMC mode (you can also do profile_force=0 to just disable it). I will have to follow up with the L13 team why the profiles aren't working correctly.

Test 2: With PSC mode enabled (don't do the profile_force above) try running thermald in adaptive mode. As a quick test do 'thermald --adaptive --ignore-cpuid-check' and see how that works. I've been playing with it on my systems and it works quite nicely so it would be useful to get a result. It shouldn't change profiles...let me know if it does.

Mark

for test 1 I can't rmmod since it says its being used.

here is my lsmod:

tried modprobe directly (though it probably won't work without reload of kernel module?)

for test 2 here is my default thermald status

and here is it with the command you gave (not sure if its working or not what should I test or control here?)

thanks in advance.

Strange - I unload and load thinkpad_acpi all the time...

You should be able to add thinkpad_acpi.profile_force=1 to the kernel bootargs as an alternative to test that.

For the 2nd test - just check how your system behaves. Recommend keeping a close eye on the thermals (use 'sensors' from lm_sensors package) but make sure it stays in the same profile and that everything is at the same level of performance as you experienced before. You may find that it's slightly improved under heavy load as in my experience on the X1 Carbon the fans go higher in performance mode allowing for a bit more power and higher frequencies for longer.

I tried to add it to my kernel bootargs but it still seems to use platform_profile:

testing nr 2 now (keeping sensors command on watch and will see if it drops back to power-saving from performance)

(also seems like the reported fan speeds are broken + thinkpad-isa-0000 temps like +111.0 and -80.0)

Sorry - I was dumb...you want to do profile_force=-1 to disable it (and go back to intel_pstate). It's been a long week...

Interesting on the fans - I assume the fans are blowing OK. Definitely need to look into that too

Could you confirm which BIOS and EC you are running (easiest is from the F1 setup screen, but you can get it with 'sudo dmidecode -t bios' too)

with test 2 it seems like it takes longer but still switches profiles automatically back. however I don't notice anything different in terms of performance between these profiles while on platform_profile. is there a command to check voltage or cpu speed?

for test 1 doing thinkpad_acpi profile_force=-1 worked now and I can force intel_pstate:

for the fans yes they work correctly there is no physical issues (also tested this before with maintenance menu in bios to control fans)

my bios output of sudo dmidecode -t bios:

# dmidecode 3.4
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 3.2.0 present.

Handle 0x0010, DMI type 0, 26 bytes
BIOS Information
	Vendor: LENOVO
	Version: R1FET50W (1.24 )
	Release Date: 02/07/2023
	Address: 0xE0000
	Runtime Size: 128 kB
	ROM Size: 32 MB
	Characteristics:
		PCI is supported
		PNP is supported
		BIOS is upgradeable
		BIOS shadowing is allowed
		Boot from CD is supported
		Selectable boot is supported
		EDD is supported
		3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
		Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
		8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
		Serial services are supported (int 14h)
		Printer services are supported (int 17h)
		CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
		ACPI is supported
		USB legacy is supported
		BIOS boot specification is supported
		Targeted content distribution is supported
		UEFI is supported
	BIOS Revision: 1.24
	Firmware Revision: 1.16

Handle 0x0019, DMI type 13, 22 bytes
BIOS Language Information
	Language Description Format: Abbreviated
	Installable Languages: 1
		en-US
	Currently Installed Language: en-US

any update on this? I see other discussions appear on the wild too (https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/power-profile-keeps-changing-automatically-back-to-power-saver/84031/) seems like not only l13 g2 is affected.

I've nudged the FW team - I have an internal ticket open (for my reference: LO-2513) but hadn't had any updates. I've raised the priority of the ticket so it shows up on my weekly bug scrub.

In that other thread - X1 Carbon G9 shouldn't be impacted by this but I'll reply there as a follow up

I have the same issue on ThinkPad T490 with Manjaro.

When using kernel 5.10, the Driver for the power profile is intel_pstate. When I use a newer kernel (I tried 5.15, 6.1, and 6.4) then the driver is platform_profile, and switching the power profile doesn't have any effect and after some time, it goes from performance back to balance.